Horse Slaughter for Human Consumption

[Chocolatl]

If you get upset about pictures of blueberries on food packages, you may want to consider this:

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/hors ... n-the-u-s/

[MichPom]

I read a article on this subject, I do not like it at all.

[Mary]

Although most Americans would not think about eating the meat of a horse (or goat or dog for that matter), countries in Europe do so. The United States is an active exporter of horse to other countries. And of course the horses are slaughtered before the meat is exported.

This brief passage from the U.S.D.A. says it more clearly than I can at the moment. The whole text is at http://www.igha.org/USDA.html

"Although many Americans have an aversion to eating horse meat, the horse meat industry is now rivaling the beef and pork industries in the amounts of fresh meat shipped abroad. In 1994, 109,353 pounds of horse meat was shipped overseas. In Sweden horse meat outsells lamb and mutton combined. It is also commonly consumed in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, but it is most popular in Belgium and France."

[Mary]

I just reread my earlier post, and I think the whole subject needs much more thorough examination than the post seems to imply. My only thought was to point out that others in the world do consume horse meat.

The current situation in the U.S. seems to be a complex one. There are no slaughterhouses in the U.S. which process horse meat for export, and the last ones closed in 2006 and 2007, so far as I can find. Currently, slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada accept U.S. deliveries for slaughter and export. Issues to be considered (in addition to the emotionally charged ones) include treatment of the animals and drug/substance/food consumption during a lifespan, since horses are not bred for slaughter.

Folks on both sides of the issue are lining up to defend their positions, loudly it seems. It will be an interesting debate to follow.

[Dissie]

I don't want to consume horse meat. But what makes a horse different than say a cow? I know people in other cultures eat dog. I don't want to, but people do consume them.

[Mary]

And there are those who do not eat beef or pork. So, we live in a diverse world, and people have different customs. What we can do is learn tolerance and monitor the safety of the food chain. I would also listen sympathetically to arguments about humane treatment of any animal or fowl that is to become a food source.

[Ninya]

I am more concerned about how they are slaughtered to be quite frank, some abattoirs are a horror story. The older I get the less I can bear to have horrendous sights in my head, it upsets me for days.

I am sure I must have eaten horse in France on numerous occasions, quite hard to tell the difference between that and beef unless you are told.

[Crocus]

I am not upset about this; horse meat is used in many European and Asian countries. I do not choose to eat it and I have refused to cook it (I co-owned a small business where we did dinner parties to order). But I do not object to others cooking and eating it.

Pigs are considered to be more intelligent than dogs, and again, I will not cook or eat dog meat, but I consume pork frequently.

Living on a farm most of my life I am quite used to eating farmyard animals, some of them quite friendly.

We all draw our lines in different places and that's okay.

[justsandy]

And there are those who do not eat beef or pork. So, we live in a diverse world, and people have different customs. What we can do is learn tolerance and monitor the safety of the food chain. I would also listen sympathetically to arguments about humane treatment of any animal or fowl that is to become a food source.

As a dedicated carnivore (but not horses, not ever, I'm pretty sure), I second this.

[Marion_in_Savannah]

When I was a little girl in the late 40s and early 50s my mother used to buy frozen horse meat to feed the dogs. It was sold in the freezer in the supermarket in NYC, and had charcoal added to prevent human consumption. Other cultures have eaten horses for millennia. Folks don't seem to have a huge problem with eating Bambi in this country, so I really don't see what the fuss is.